Whoa... I'm sitting here wishing I had paid more attention in the solo Econ class I took in college. What I do remember from that semester is that it was a god-awful 8:00am class and that Dr. Bennett had a quirky, idiosyncratic style; i.e., his propensity for declaring, "A box of Snickers for that Boy!" when a student provided an accurate answer during his spot quizzes. And it's not just Economics. Would it have been so awful to have attempted a Finance class? Don't know much about any of that stuff, to paraphrase the late Sam Cooke.
I'm serious when I say that if anyone can explain the error of my thought process, I promise to pay attention.
I'm speaking of "the worst week on Wall Street since the great crash of 1929" as every paid pundit has put it. Now we have the Monkey-in-Chief declaring that "it's really bad" (thanks, Dub); while his wannabe replacement again shows his knee-jerk, impulsive nature be declaring he'd oust the SEC chairman. (Hence, today's headline). I'm no apologist for Christopher Cox, but while McLame's response makes a nice sound bite, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
It's not that I believe Obama has a magic solution, but at least he has the common sense to moderate his comments until he's fully studied the issue.
Not that either of them will likely have much influence on how we get out of this mess (or deepen it). At this moment, a brain trust composed of Bush appointees, various congress people and, no doubt, lobbyists for the NeoCom free marketers are said to be holed up somewhere in DC trying to bang out some legislation and/or further bail-out schemes to save the global financial markets. Foxes guarding the hen house, indeed. All of this will undoubtedly cost us trillions of dollars. And, even at record lows for the value of the dollar, that's a lot of dough.
I struggle to pay attention and try to grasp how all of this will impact us. Oh sure, the numbers on the old 401(k) statement will be depressing. But the real pain, it is starting to dawn on me, will be that regardless of who is elected; there will be absolutely nothing in the treasury to consider things like fixing health care, addressing infrastructure issues, bolstering our education system, not to mention investing in crazy stuff like the Arts. Social Security and Medicare are even more at risk, at best. Something tells me, however, that cash to the "War-On-Everything-I-mean-Terrorism" will continue to flow - spigots wide open.
This morning I listened to back-to-back stories on the radio. The first was about the financial crisis and various theories about how to fix it. The second featured a couple of hard working knuckleheads in Galveston, trying to figure out how to regroup after losing their businesses to Hurricane Ike. One guy from the latter group, a shrimp fisherman, spoke about being thankful that his family was all okay and that he only lost "stuff." The sheer grit of this guy was obvious. I suspect he'll have a few tough years and somehow will pull it all together and survive, pretty much on the strength of his own hard work and determination. Perhaps he'll qualify for some FEMA funds, but it seems clear that any assistance will be minimal. On the other hand, I wonder what Christopher Cox's - or any of the big money manglers' - severance packages would look like if McCain gets his way. Methinks our Shrimper pal would be wise to take that deal, eh?
What if, instead of using the trillions to bail out the big companies that "are too big to fail," we were to divide that same amount of money among all the people who have lost, or are at risk for losing, their homes due to the tricky mortgages foisted upon them by these same free market dudes? What if we tried some trickle UP assumptions for a while?
I'm serious when I say that if anyone can explain the error of my thought process, I promise to pay attention.
I'm speaking of "the worst week on Wall Street since the great crash of 1929" as every paid pundit has put it. Now we have the Monkey-in-Chief declaring that "it's really bad" (thanks, Dub); while his wannabe replacement again shows his knee-jerk, impulsive nature be declaring he'd oust the SEC chairman. (Hence, today's headline). I'm no apologist for Christopher Cox, but while McLame's response makes a nice sound bite, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
It's not that I believe Obama has a magic solution, but at least he has the common sense to moderate his comments until he's fully studied the issue.
Not that either of them will likely have much influence on how we get out of this mess (or deepen it). At this moment, a brain trust composed of Bush appointees, various congress people and, no doubt, lobbyists for the NeoCom free marketers are said to be holed up somewhere in DC trying to bang out some legislation and/or further bail-out schemes to save the global financial markets. Foxes guarding the hen house, indeed. All of this will undoubtedly cost us trillions of dollars. And, even at record lows for the value of the dollar, that's a lot of dough.
I struggle to pay attention and try to grasp how all of this will impact us. Oh sure, the numbers on the old 401(k) statement will be depressing. But the real pain, it is starting to dawn on me, will be that regardless of who is elected; there will be absolutely nothing in the treasury to consider things like fixing health care, addressing infrastructure issues, bolstering our education system, not to mention investing in crazy stuff like the Arts. Social Security and Medicare are even more at risk, at best. Something tells me, however, that cash to the "War-On-Everything-I-mean-Terrorism" will continue to flow - spigots wide open.
This morning I listened to back-to-back stories on the radio. The first was about the financial crisis and various theories about how to fix it. The second featured a couple of hard working knuckleheads in Galveston, trying to figure out how to regroup after losing their businesses to Hurricane Ike. One guy from the latter group, a shrimp fisherman, spoke about being thankful that his family was all okay and that he only lost "stuff." The sheer grit of this guy was obvious. I suspect he'll have a few tough years and somehow will pull it all together and survive, pretty much on the strength of his own hard work and determination. Perhaps he'll qualify for some FEMA funds, but it seems clear that any assistance will be minimal. On the other hand, I wonder what Christopher Cox's - or any of the big money manglers' - severance packages would look like if McCain gets his way. Methinks our Shrimper pal would be wise to take that deal, eh?
What if, instead of using the trillions to bail out the big companies that "are too big to fail," we were to divide that same amount of money among all the people who have lost, or are at risk for losing, their homes due to the tricky mortgages foisted upon them by these same free market dudes? What if we tried some trickle UP assumptions for a while?
Do I get my box of Snickers?
1 comment:
That earns two boxes!
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